Star Wars: Ripples in the Force

The brothers slept at the family homestead for the first time in over a decade. Well rested the next morning, they went about trying to make themselves useful. Dand decided to go to town to deliver the message from Gail and pick up some stuff while Jaxs asked Tay if he'd like to be taken out for some hunting training. Tay was thrilled at the idea so they took off for the day. When Dand got back he decided to take Ravre aside to show her how to clean a gun. Lori appeared thrilled at the chance for her children to learn things she hadn't really had the time to show them. Besides, they listened better to their lost cousins then their mother anyway. Everything was going fine until Dand got a call from Jaxs. They'd made a kill, but gotten separated. According to the tracks Jaxs found it appeared two people had met Tay in the forest and he'd left with them and headed towards town.

One part angry, one part concerned Dand and Lori left to meet Jaxs in town to find Tay.

When the boys landed on Concord Dawn they found a planet that was mostly existing peacefully with the Empire, only really having to deal with recruiters who wished to delve into the old madelorian blood. The port town was not as busy as they remembered it during the wartime and overall it appeared things had returned to a mostly quiet farming culture. Only a few things here and there could tell them they really had returned home: no one staring at their amor for example, or the weapons holstered on the side of farm equipment.

They introduced themselves and inquired after their clan at a couple of places in town, but no one seemed to want to give them much information. They didn't see anyone they reconized or anyone that reconized them. So with not much else to do, they left No-name and the ship to check out their old home.

Once there they were immediately greeted by a woman pointing a blaster rifle at them. Lori Karr, Dand and Jaxs aunt, had apparently been warned they were coming by folks in the town and she was very unhappy about people daring to dress in Mandalorian armor claiming to be her dead newphews. Once they convinsed her they were not dead she lowered her rifle and gave a signal to her son who'd been poised on the roof with his own blaster. Tey Karr was about 14, old enough to have his own armor and be out training with other soldiers. His sister Melhri was in the house, 9 years old and clearly pretending to be old enough not to be awed by the two strangers.

Lori, though she looked tired, offered to feed them and put them up for the night since clearly there were questions that needed to be answered on both sides. For the most part they didn't have much to give since all they knew was they'd been working in the rim per their fathers instructions until a couple of years ago he'd stopped talking to them. It had taken this long for them to find a way home to figure out what had happened.

All that Lori could tell them was that their father had somehow gotten news of their death and had decided to return to try and free Mandelor from Empirial and/or Deathwatch control. It was of course a foolish mission, but one a few followed him on, including their uncle, Lori's husband. That had been a little while ago and if they were still alive then they were behind the Emperial baracade of Mandelor.

Jaxs is laying down in sand, which seems right only it's hot and way too much like Tatooine. He gets up and starts walking, but appears to be completely lost until he sees a cave in front of him. He walks towards it until he gets to the mouth of it and sees a small red rock. He pockets the rock and enters the cave only to wake up on a dark, much cooler beach next to he ocean and a strange old looking creature with tentacles on his face watching him. Something about how the moonlight struck him made him look almost transparent. Hurting and confused he calls out to Dand who is sleeping near by. Dand is instantly awake and goes to check on his brother who only points towards the Quarren creepily staring at them. Something wasn't right about the guy, even as he ask them questions about who they are, what they are, and eludes to things they don't understand before giving them a warning about their ship and leaving before it's too late. By this point the sun was rising and activity was starting to rise again on the beach. The Quarren disappeared, but not before Jaxs realizes that there is a red rock in his pocket that certainly doesn't look like anything he would have picked up in this area.

Jaxs was feeling well enough to move so Dand and him move up the beach to find someone they can talk to. They find Gail and let him know they can't get a hold of their ship and all he can tell them is that it's probably grounded for the moment and suggest that if they want to get off planet now might be a good time since their intelligence was saying the Emperial troops where leaving the local docking hub. He agrees to give get them a ride back, but not before he hands them a message with directions to give it to the first person they contact once they leave the planet.

Once they get closer they are able to make contact with No-Name who tells them he has let no one mess with the ship and seems eager to leave. When they get to the docks it didn't take long for them to sneak on board and get the engines running since the docks seemed deserted of Emperial presence despite pieces of their destroyer still on the dock. Once they take off, though, it's different story. A fleet was descending on the space docks and it took all of Jaxs current abilities to dodge them with Dand shooting down any that followed. The moment they broke atmosphere they made the jump for home, Concord Dawn.

Almost as soon as they land on Mon Calamar things start to go wrong. Their ship is searched almost as soon as they dock and only the boys showing sympathy towards the Empire and kissing up looking for work made them only put the cargo under a 24 hour quarantine. With not much else to do they leave the ship to explore the local hub and try to find their contact, trusting No-Name will not let anything on board. Nothing happens for the first night except for No-Name catching a Mon Calamari on camera coming really close to the ship to check it out.

The next morning there is another Mon Calamari who appears to be casually looking out on the sea next to their ship. Dand approaches him and the code is given. Gail asks about the cargo and Dand tells them it's under quarantine for now so they'll have to wait. While they're looking out over the ocean, Dand and Jaxs can see boat coming in with Quarians workers coming in to work on an Emperial destroyer docked not far from them. Things get worse, though, when later that day the Emperial commander who inspected their ship yesterday comes by and says they won't be releasing their cargo, but he may have some jobs for them. They refuse to work with him until they get their cargo and the commander leaves in a huff. Trying to figure out how to complete the job now Dand heads out to make contact with Gail and Jaxs heads to the warehouse where the cargo is being stored to see how or if they can get it out.

Jaxs makes it to the warehouse okay, but before he can break in he is spotted by a pair of storm troopers. When he tries to take off, they fire at him and Jaxs is hit. Desperate to escape, he jumps off the docks… right as the destroyer on the dock explodes over him. Right before Jaxs blacks out he instinctively calls out to Dand in his mind.

Dand feels the desperate call from Jaxs right as he and Gail hear the explosion from the docks. Gail is panicked and says something about it being too soon. They take off from the bar and run towards the docks to find it completely in chaos. Gail grabs someone and they explain that they attacked sooner because some the saboteurs heard blaster fire and panicked. Dand somehow knows Jaxs is in the water under the debris, but before he can dive in after him, Gail stops him saying he'll send some of his men to look for him and now is the time to try and get the cargo. Reluctantly Dand agrees he'll never be able to find Jaxs and heads to the warehouse with some of the young Mon Calamari freedom fighters.

When they find the cargo, they push the crates into a service trap door that leads directly to water filled channels below. Once down their the Mon Calamari break open the boxes, which are filled with random ship parts, and take something out of the crates themselves. They then give Dand a re-breather and they swim away from the docks out to sea. They come out onto a hidden island that is bustling with activity as Mon Calamars and Quarrens bustle back and forth. There Dand finds Jaxs lying on the beach where the other freedom fighters had left him after getting him breathing again. He patches Jaxs up as best he can and tries making contact with No-Name, but there is no response.

This ship is a piece of junk. They hyperdrive is down and they have to use the back up to get anywhere. It took them a nearly week to get to nearby Bespin with almost nothing to do other than go through the ships stocks and clean their armor. During this trip, Jaxs has a strange and rather realistic dream of being in a cave surrounded by sand.

When they arrive at Bespin, they are approached as mandelorians with a job offer from a man named Pateal Roome. He says he'd be willing to pay for repairs to their ship and give them more credits when they're done if they'll deliver a package to Mon Calamari. He eludes to this mission having failed before, and mentions there might be the possibility of hazard pay. Sounds stupid and dangerous, but they really need to work and their ship repaired. So they take the offer. The mission: To smuggle the packages to an Emperial controlled dock to a Mon Calamari by the name of Gail. Gail will approach them talking about tides in November and that's how they'll get their next orders.

No-Name is not happy with the workers being on the ship to do the repairs and Dand stays behind to watch them and the creepy droid. However, No-Name does catch them trying to put a tracker on the ship and Dand confronts Roome about it. Roome apologizes and says it's nothing personal, it's just something he tries to do for all his hired ships and he doesn't push it further. Meanwhile Jaxs decides to try and earn some extra credits with some pazack games, and as usual, does really well. Well enough that two of the people from the table start following him back as he heads back towards the ship. Jaxs calls ahead for Dand to meet him outside… and seeing the two armored and helmed mandelorians is enough to make them change their minds about tailing Jaxs.

After the repairs are finished, three large wooden boxes are delivered to the ship. Jaxs has one more nightmare of being surrounded by sand before they leave for Mon Calamari for their first job.

The ship is on total lock-down and the dock workers are whispering about it being haunted.

Bull Shit!

Dand and Jaxs decide to bi-pass the electronic system of the door by cutting it open, but as soon as they put welder to door, it opens up for them. They step inside and the door seals them inside, only this time if they touch it they get electrocuted for their troubles. With nothing else they can do at the moment they start to clear the ship, but find nothing except in old broken down droid in the corner and the old pilots stuff scattered about. Dand heads to the engine while Jaxs heads to the cockpit to try and figure out how to get the old bucket to do what it wants, but almost every time they think they got something working, something else goes down somewhere else or the fix doesn't last more than a few minutes.

At some point they begin to suspect that the broken down droid had moved, but before they can confirm that for sure, the droid has a frag grenade in its hand. Dand grabs it and the droid takes off to the cockpit. There they corner it, grab it, and try to communicate with it, but the droid does not respond. Finally Dand has enough and rips the droids head off. It's then the brothers realize that the droid doesn't have a voice box. Also, the ship has conveniently started cooperating with them.

They repair the droids voice box, but it does not help much. It is reluctant to communicate with them and only gives them answers under threat. The droid calls himself and the ship No-Name. When Jaxs goes through the old ships records he finds that the ship has gone through several pilots, each only holding the ship for a few months and doesn't appear to have any current registration. Either way, the ship appears ready to fly and the droid No-Name appears willing to work for them now either because he's scared of them or because they appear to be bringing no harm to the ship. Eager to leave Tatooine, they fly away from the desert planet.

Jaxs and Dand are bored out of their minds working as toughs for the local Huts on Tatooine and waiting for a better opportunity to come along when a old ship force lands in the local space port and it's pilot takes off into the desert. He appears to have been chased to the planet and is wanted off world by someone. Between that and having blatantly disregarded any orders given by Hutt command on his entry, Jabba puts out a local bounty for anyone who'd be willing to head out into the desert to fetch him. Jaxs and Dand eagerly take the opportunity since their talents have been basically wasted up to this point. With Jaxs tracking skills, they are soon ahead of anyone else who'd be looking for the pilot and, despite a brief run-in with some sand people, catch up to him right about when he's about to seek shelter in a large rock cave.

Jaxs dives in to stop him from entering, brings him out and they take him back to town. The pilot appears to have lost his mind, babbling nonsense mostly in his native tongue, and there's almost a little pity felt when they turn him over to his fate with the Hutts. But any pity is soon replaced with fury when they realize that instead of the paying them the credits that Jabba had promised, he instead intends to pay them with the junked ship the pilot came in! Not that they wouldn't love a ship so they could leave Tatooine, but this thing looks like it could barely leave orbit.